A Murder Is Announced
Crime, Mystery
Agatha Christie
Miss Mapple, Book # 4
HarperCollins Publishers
June 1950
Paperback
382
English
December 1, 2021 December 5, 2021
Beat the Backlist, Cloak and Dagger, Finishing The Series, Library Love, The Backlist Reader, Virtual Mount TBR
Promoted on both sides of the Atlantic as Agatha Christie's 50th book and published in 1950 by William Collins, A Murder is Announced is a staple of crime fiction and is often considered the best of all the Miss Marple novels. The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…
About the book
A death announcement is posted in the local Chipping Cleghorn newspaper. A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.. Friends are requested to take note of this warning which will never be repeated. Everyone in town feels compelled to go to Miss Blacklock’s house to really see if this crime will happen, and indeed someone dies. Murder or misfortune? After the incident, the commissioner tries to understand what really happened and gets help from a rather particular woman, first a guest in a hotel in the area and then by the wife of the parish priest of the town (they were also present that evening). Obviously this little woman is Miss Marple who happens to be able to be useful despite her ailments.
What I think
I liked the book right up to the end. I must say that I understood the identity or one of the twins (I won’t say anything else, whoever read the book understand what I’m talking about 
) so I solved a mystery, but who was the culprit? Nope, I didn’t catch that and honestly I didn’t like it that much. Too cheap and easy planning.
Then there are parts that are only there to cause havoc like a certain person’s deserter husband, but I loved the maid Mitsi or how that name is spelt.
I think Miss Marple is not for me or rather maybe I prefer Poirot to her (as I may have already said, sorry but I have read so many Christie’s books lately that I don’t remember what I wrote in the various reviews) and I don’t know, I can’t even find her nice as a nuisance old lady. However, I will continue to read the series.
